There has been proposed a device for detecting an amount of particulate matter (PM) contained in exhaust gas emitted from an internal combustion engine (for example, see patent document 1.)
The patent document 1 has disclosed an electrical resistance type sensor which generates an output value corresponding to an amount of particulate matter contained in exhaust gas. Further, the patent document 1 has disclosed a method of correcting the output value of the electrical resistance type sensor on the basis of a temperature of exhaust gas, a temperature of this sensor and an amount of exhaust gas. This technique disclosed in the patent document 1 makes it possible to detect an amount of particulate matter with high accuracy without any influence due to the temperature of the sensor and the amount of exhaust gas.